Maikel van der Vleuten (NED) and the 11-year-old mare Dana Blue (Mr Blue x Hemmingway) made it a home win in Friday's CSIO5* Longines Grand Prix of Twente.
Eight horse-and-rider combinations made it to the jump-off, where Van der Vleuten was the fastest when stopping the clock at 41.89 seconds. Following in runner-up position was reigning World Champions Simone Blum (GER) and DSP Alice (Askari x Landrebell), with a time of 43.29 seconds.
It was a Dutch and German top five, with Kevin Jochems (NED) and Cristello (Numero Uno x Voltaire) in third, Janne-Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann (GER) on Buettner's Minimax (Cornado NRW x Antaeus) in fourth and Maurice Tebbel (GER) with Don Diarado (Diarado x Lord Lancer) in fifth.
"I can easily ride fast with Dana Blue. It worked out very well in the jump-off. If I think I want to turn left or right, Dana Blue already did it. I'm really happy. My father won here ten years ago, so that's nice. This is one of the classics in the Netherlands that wants you just win once,” van der Vleuten said in an interview after.